STRANGE DEATHS
UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL
Ivan Klyucharev, 30, a member of a group that practises survival skills in extreme situations, disappeared in May 2017 after going hiking. Two years later, his remains were discovered handcuffed and chained to a tree in a forest in Shatura, 80 miles (130km) east of Moscow. Eduard Karpov spotted his skull covered by a hoodie and the rest of his skeleton shrouded by leaves. A camera pointing at the body was nearby, along with five more cuffs, three metal chains, six padlocks, a book of knots, a tent, salt and matches. His mother had hired search teams on more than one occasion over the last two years, but they had drawn a blank. Curiously, the area of forest where he was finally found had previously been searched several times in vain. His friends described him as “impetuous” and said his favourite quote was “destiny will always lead us”. They said they could imagine him going into the forest, locking himself up, throwing away the key, and attempting to wriggle free like a latterday Houdini. Or was it murder dressed up to look like an accident? Officials were examining the camera’s memory card and his computer amid speculation that he had an interest in bondage and sadomasochistic sex. Some reports claimed that only his left hand was handcuffed to a chain attached to the tree. Sky News, 17 April; Metro, Sun, 18 April 2019.
Bethan Gaskin, 24, choked to death attempting a party trick known as the “Jaffa Cake challenge” – fitting as many Jaffa Cakes into her mouth as possible. The mother of a three-year-old girl suffered cardiac arrest at her home in Bourne, Lincolnshire, on 22 February. Her family found her on the toilet floor after congealed chocolate and jelly got stuck in her throat. She was taken to hospital, where she died five days later from a brain injury. D.Telegraph, D.Mail, 23 Mar 2019.
In June last year, a short-sighted man shot dead a 78-year-old neighbour after mistaking him for a marauding monkey in Kamogawa, Japan. In October, Italy’s environment minister Sergio Costa called for a nationwide ban on Sunday hunting after an 18-year-old was mistaken for a wild boar and shot dead. Nathan Labolani was walking his dog in woods near Apricale on 30 September when a hunter shot him in the abdomen with a Winchester rifle. Boar populations have risen rapidly in Italy in recent years, with an estimated one million wild pigs roaming the countryside and on the periphery of major cities including Rome, up from 600,000 a decade ago. D.Star, 18 June; D.Telegraph, 2 Oct 2018.
On 1 May, a Kazakh couple died of bubonic plague in Mongolia’s westernmost province of BayanUlgii after eating raw marmot kidney. A six-day quarantine was declared in the region, which borders Russia and China, preventing nine tourists from leaving. Authorities have warned against eating raw marmot meat because it can carry Yersinia pestis, the plague germ. Some people ignore the warnings as they believe that consuming the innards of the large rodent is good for their health. Each year in Mongolia at least one person dies of the plague, mostly due to consuming such meat. [AFP] Guardian, 6 May 2019.
Supermarket worker Danny Munro, 26, was a serial prankster. On one occasion he squirted ketchup on himself, pretending to have been stabbed, and another time he faked anaphylactic shock after eating nuts while driving. He died three days after strangling himself with his tracksuit bottoms in Bignall End, Staffordshire. His girlfriend Amy Leaman, who had previously warned him against ‘crying wolf’, initially dismissed her boyfriend’s hanging as another joke and the true horror only dawned on her when he was unresponsive to her pleas and his face turned blue. Despite dashing downstairs to grab a knife to cut him loose, she was too late. She called 999 but Mr Munro lost his fight for life at the Royal Stoke University Hospital on 4 August 2018. A post-mortem examination gave a cause of death due to massive brain swelling from compression to the neck. dailymail.co.uk, 2 May 2019.
A male fashion model died after collapsing on the catwalk. Brazilian Tales Soares, 26, staggered and fell face down after apparently tripping on his shoelaces, or the long straps on his sandals. The audience thought it was part of the show until paramedics rushed to treat Soares, who was foaming at the mouth. The show for clothes brand Ocksa at Brazil’s São Paulo Fashion Week carried on, with models carrying tribute placards with the word amor (love) and luto (mourning). Soares’s agency denied drugs were involved, saying his behaviour was always “exemplary” and he was a healthy vegetarian. Sun, D.Mail, 29 April 2019.